This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

“Light Gradient” (“Ruckenwind”) is a small gay “horror” (of sorts) film from Germany, stretched to feature length (75 minutes), although it could have been a short. Directed and written by Jan Kruger, it is a little bit in the tradition of “Bugcrush” but even more elusive. It’s thriller, mystery, horror, art, and eroticism, all of these things – and minimalist to boot.

The film focuses on two young men, apparently lovers, and a mother and a teenage son at a farmhouse. As so often in these sorts of films, the teenager (maybe 14) is the most mature and psychologically intact of the lot, and oddly the most immune to harm. He could never be abused, so the posters for the film may throw us off a bit.

The film opens as Johann (Sebastian Schlect) reads a story about the fox and the hare, and he seems to be in a mental institution or jail, about to be interviewed. The rest of the film is then backstory, as we see Johann and another young man Robin (Eric Golub) on a train, then going on a hike to develop a relationship. They lose their bikes (misterioso), and then they ambush an older couple for food, letting you know that someone is not completely stable (but it happens so fast you’re not sure). They arrive at the farmhouse. After the teen first defends the home at gunpoint, the mother arrives and they “family” takes them in with almost Christian hospitality. The teen Henri (Denis Alevi) accepts their homosexuality but seems curiously aloof, almost as if he were observing an experiment. Eventually, we begin to see that the Johann and Robin have their own agendas, leading to the film’s sudden conclusion.

The title of the film appears early, as the boys read a topographical map. The film has rather sparse dialogue (the subtitles would be unnecessary, as the German sounds almost like the English derived from it), and the camera tends to move between the farm scenes, often along trails of varying lighting (almost like in a film school exercise), to scenes of intimacy that sometimes are really “interesting” (involving the men only); there is some focus on “exploring” male chest and legs. Then, the script ventures into literature, old books lying around, providing backstories to anticipate what will really happen here.

Like Carter Smith’s notorious short, this is one of those films where DVD owners or renters will want to watch some scenes repeatedly to find all the little clues. This is film for its own sake, telling stories in images with few words.

The film has won awards at several LGBT film festivals, including Outfest, Frameline, Torino, and Miami. It would be interesting to see how it would do in the more “established” international circuit (San Sebastian comes to mind – a city I have visited with its famous beach – and I hope to visit a festival there some day). I think it’s interesting to try to merge gay “culture” into the mainstream.

Strand has announced a street date of Nov. 9, 2010 and pre-book of Oct. 12.

One might compare this movie to Lars van Trier’s “AntiChrist” (reviewed here Oct. 26, 2009). And the camera style here did seem to follow many of the concepts of Dogme.

Strand’s site is here. http://www.strandreleasing.com/films/film_details.asp?BusinessUnitID={9C59ED8C-EABD-41AB-AC02-A4148B8F14C3}&ProjectID={FA857754-BFE2-4A31-8BB8-9D98009E5AE0} Strand’s own summary of the plot doesn’t quite do it justice.

Youtube had only one trailer:

Picture (mine): October night in Kipton, Ohio (near Oberlin), a historic town that would make a great background for low budget mystery and horror movies (and that part of the country needs an economic boost!)

Analytics

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at JBoushka@aol.com.

At billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com , the privacy of my visitors is of extreme importance to me. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files Like many other Web sites, billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com does not use cookies.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com .
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following link.

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on my site. My advertising partners include ....... Google Adsense

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com 's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Especially for EU visitors: This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. For more info visit https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/